Food inspector arrested for graft

The vigilance bureau on Monday caught a food inspector accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from a small-time entrepreneur at Ranchi Sadar Hospital.

Sanjay Kumar, who is in charge of Ranchi, Khunti and Gumla districts, has been arrested. The vigilance team also searched his home at New AG Colony in the state capital.

Manoj Kumar Sinha, the entrepreneur on whose complaint the vigilance department acted, said he needed a food licence for the chowmein plant he had set up in Kanke.

“But he (Sanjay Kumar) threw my application in the bin and demanded a bribe. Initially, I paid him Rs 11,000. But he insisted that I should pay Rs 6,000 more. I decided to approach the vigilance bureau,” said Sinha, also a local Trinamul Congress worker.

On March 27, Sinha lodged a complaint with vigilance officials, who asked him to visit the food inspector at his office along with a senior vigilance official for verification of his complaint.

“The same day, I went to Kumar’s office at sadar hospital and paid Rs 1,000 in the presence of the vigilance official. Today, he again called me. Incidentally, I was at the vigilance office and the officials went with me to meet the food inspector. The moment he took Rs 3,000 from me, they arrested him,” the businessman added.

Vigilance SP Vipul Shukla said: “A search was carried at the residence of the food inspector. We found some papers, which will be verified.”